Japan Open: Flash Kosuke Kitajima Breaks 200 Breast World Record

TOKYO, Japan, June 8. DURING the final day of action at the Japan Open, Kosuke Kitajima delivered a strong message to the globe via a world record in the 200 breast, he's ready to defend his Olympic gold medals.

After wearing a T-shirt stating "I am the swimmer," in protest of the Japanese Swimming Federation's contract that reduces national team members to just three brands of suits at the Olympics, Kitajima made his most emphatic response in the water with the world record when he donned a LZR Racer en route to a time of 2:07.51.

That swim smashed the two-year-old standard of 2:08.50 set by Brendan Hansen at the 2006 Pan Pacific Championships held in Victoria, Canada. Incidentally, Kitajima also broke his national record of 2:08.84 set in April.

Several other records fell at the meet. Takurou Rujii posted a time of 1:59.28 in the men's 200 IM to surpass the 1:59.81 set by Ken Takakuwa in 2006. Shiho Sakai and Reiko Nakamura tied for the women's 50 back title in national record times of 28.25. The efforts eclipsed Nakamura's national standard of 28.36 set in 2007. The men's 50 back standard also fell with Junichi Miyashita touching in 25.26. That performance wiped out the 25.39 that Junya Koga and Tomomi Morita shared from matching times set in 2006. Kouhei Kawamoto also downed the men's 100 fly record with a 51.77. That beat Masayuki Kishida's 51.83 from April.

In other action, Natsumi Hoshi broke the national high school record with a winning time of 2:07.04 in the women's 200 fly. Izumi Katou won the women's 200 IM (2:14.72), An Yumoto won the women's 50 free (25.68), Makoto Itou took the men's 50 free (22.95) and Megumi Taneda claimed the women's 200 breast (2:23.96).